Civic and human rights groups yesterday rallied outside the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office as several participants in the April 11 demonstration outside Zhongzheng First Police Precinct headquarters arrived for questioning.
Activists from the Judicial Reform Foundation, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Restoration of Taiwan Social Justice, Taiwan Forever and the Taiwan Association of University Professors held placards and flags, and chanted slogans accusing the government of acting unconstitutionally.
They also said the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) was unconstitutional.
Photo: Chien Lee-chung, Taipei Times
“I was not the ‘main culprit’ that night. The crowd had gathered on its own. I went there after seeing information on the Internet, and I actually helped to maintain order,” National Taiwan University student Hung Chung-yen (洪崇晏) said after he left the prosecutors’ office following questioning.
“I hope the prosecutors realize that peaceful assembly is a fundamental right of the people and refrain from prosecuting peaceful demonstrators,” he said.
Savungaz Valicinan, who said she was dragged into the precinct that night, said she had gotten upset when an officer lost his temper and slapped her.
“I was mad, and asked why he slapped me, and the next thing I knew I was being dragged into the building,” Savungaz said. “I asked the officers why they dragged me into the building, and a female officer told me: ‘You may leave now.’”
It did not make sense that nothing has happened to the police officer who slapped a peaceful demonstrator, she said.
“It is ironic that while I am preparing to sue the officer, I am now being sued by the police,” she said.
Judicial Reform Foundation deputy executive director Chen Yu-fan (陳雨凡) said that from the start of the Sunflower movement protests outside the Legislative Yuan to the demonstration outside precinct, there have been many instances of police officers abusing their power.
“So far, we have helped 200 demonstrators who are facing prosecution, and more than 70 people who have been questioned by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, which has assigned four prosecutors to handle the cases,” Chen said. “I would like to know if the judicial system is making the same amount of effort in its handling of the abusive [police] officers.”
The demonstration by about 1,500 people on the evening of April 11 occurred after precinct chief Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧) ordered the forcible eviction of demonstrators — most of them mobilized by the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan — outside the Legislative Yuan, despite his promise the previous night that he would not remove peaceful demonstrators by force.
Fang also announced that he would void the assembly and parade permission given to the alliance, and never approve a request for assembly and parade from the group again.
The forcible eviction shocked the public.
Critics of Fang’s actions said the right to assembly is protected by the Constitution, while the Assembly and Parade Act does not give the government the power to permanently revoke a group’s or an individual’s right to assembly.
Participants in the April 11 protest called on Fang to apologize and resign.
The demonstration ended — and many of its participants returned to the Legislative Yuan — after Fang apologized later that night and promised to turn in his resignation.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS